Piaget’s Developmental Psychology Essay

Pi maturet (1896-1980) believed that there was a quantitative difference surrounded by the intelligence of adults, youthfulness peasantren and older squirtren. He believed adults have better knowledge of the world and because children do not use the same logic in there thinking. He believed that childrens logic changed as they true through their quad stages of life Piaget came to this conclusion after completing his cognitive development test. Unlike psychologist Siegler and Huges, Piaget is a theoretical psychologist and carried out many experiments to illustrate his theories.These stages have been critisied by many psychologist including Hughes, Siegler, flush, Blank. Sensorimotor Stage Piaget believed that a new born had basic biological motivations, and acquired knowledge by accommodation and assimilation, and once a child has acquired these schemas it would be at equilibration. It has been argued that Piaget underestimated the intelligence of a newborn. Piagets sample did not illustrate a round-eyed variety of children therefore his experiment potfulnot be related to every child at that relevant age. His count was also only preformed on his own children therefore results could have been bias.Similar experiments were devised by other psychologist expectant different conclusions, indicating Piagets results were not always reli up to(p). Piagets first stage stated that a go bad (0-2) first explores the world using motor and reflex actions. For example a child reaches towards an design and after many attempts will be able to blushtually grasp the object and then bring the object to its mouth and will continue to explore it uses the senses of taste and smell. A child is said to have fault slight this stage of development once they have obtained object permanence (a child understands that an object still exists compensate when it is not visible).This theory was tested by giving a 5-6 months old child a hornswoggle to play with, the defraud was covered with a cloth and the foils behavior observed. Results constituteed that a baby immediately lost interest as if the object never existed. However when tested with a 10 month old child it would continue to reach for the toy although it could not see it. Another chronicle is that the child did not think the toy had seized to exist but was distracted by the movement of the cloth, which is why the child looks away and appears to have forgot the toy.Bower and Wishart (1972) argued that it does still exist in a babies mind even when it may not be visible. There experiment was done on a baby less than four months the baby was off-keyered a toy but as it reached for the toy the lights were switched off this showed that even when the lights were off the child continued to reach for the toy. It can be argued that the child was not reaching out for the toy but was just reaching due to the discomfort of the sudden darkness. This study could also go against the ethical motive as the c hild could have been experiencing fear from the sudden loss sight. Pre- useable StageAt this stage a child develops symbolic thinking another characteristic of this stage is egocentrism. Piaget devised a three mountain business to test this theory. A child was sat in front of a three mountains model, a bird was then placed at varies positions in the modeled mountains and pictures were presented, they were asked to pick the picture that represented what the doll could see. quadruple and five year olds selected the picture showing what they could see, this suggested that they thought the doll could see what they could identifying egocentrism. However most septenary years old were able to identify the correct picture.Due to Piagets selection of children it was very demanding to apply his purposes to others, his own children were used throughout most of his experiment and any others were from well educated backgrounds. It can be argued that this experiment lacked ecological validi ty as the child could not relate to the situation they were presented with. Hughes devised a task to test egocentrism in a child but relating to an everyday situation, children as young as three and a half answered the question correctly, and 90% of children tested altogether were able to break up the correct answer. Concrete operational stageA child enters this stage when they understand the appearance of something may change although the item itself remains the same. Piaget tested this stage by setting out a line of counters in front of each child, than asking the child to make another row the same as the first one. Piaget would than spread out his row of counters and ask the child if there were still the same total of counters. This experiment tested a childs conservation of numbers. Most seven year olds were able to answer this question correctly concluding by the age of seven children are able to maintain numbers.To test the conservation of liquid Piaget collected two iden tical glasses A + B and a taller thin container C and asked the child which container held more, he then transferred the liquid from A+B to C and asked the child again. When a child was able to identify that both containers held the same amount of liquid they had achieved the concrete operational stage. Many aspects of this test have been criticized, including the social context of the childs understanding. Rose and Blank argued that when a child is asked the same question twice they assumed there first answer was incorrect and changed their answer.When Rose and Blank replicated this experiment and only asked the question once most six years olds gave the correct answer. McGarriglr and Donaldson (1974) argued that as the adult changed the appearance children would assume this was significant so devised an experiment were the appearance of the items were changed accidently. Children tested were between four and six, results showed that more than half tested gave the correct answer. C onfirming children conserve at a younger age than Piaget claimed. Formal Operational StageA child shows logical thinking but generally ineluctably to be able to work through sequences with actual objects. Once a child can check ideas in their head it has entered the formal operational stage. Piaget tested this by giving each child run and weights and told them to find out which factors affects a complete swing of the pendulum they could vary the weights, length of string and strength of push. Piaget ensnare children who had entered the formal operational stage approached the task systematically testing one variable at a time.Psychologist Robert Siegler (1979) tested children aged five and upwards, by using the balance beam test. Results showed that eventually the child would conceive into account the interaction between the weight and the disc but would not achieve this ability until they were between 13 and 17. This concluded that childrens cognitive development is based on ac quiring and using rules in increasingly more complex situations instead of stages. Conclusion Piaget tested his children and well-educated professionals therefore making his findings ungeneralised and potentially bias.Subsequent questions relating to the childs individual answer may have led children to give the answer researchers were looking for. Piaget underestimated the ability of childrens social understanding. A childs perception of an adult the splendour of a familiar context and the meaning of a second question all affect a childs performance. Weaknesses in Piaget experiment prevent children from showing what understood. Piaget overestimated the age at which children entered the formal operational stage (Siegler). As Piaget focused on individual children he failed to take social settings into account.He failed to show that development is continuous and not in stages Evidence suggests that environmental factors, ethics and gender could alter a childs development. Small sampl es and controllability of variables were not taken into account. Piagets had very little evidence to support his findings and believed that his finding could be applied to every child. Piagets focus on qualitative development has played an significant role on education. Piaget opened the opportunities for others to learn and discover more on how children development.